TD Survey Finds Business Email Scams Continue Their Reign

The business email compromise continues its reign as most common corporate cyberattack, according to a new report from  TD Bank.

The FI surveyed financial professionals at the NACHA Payments 2017 conference and found the percentage of those concerned about fraud is on the rise: 91 percent of those surveyed said they expect payments fraud to be a bigger threat in the next two or three years, up from 89 percent that said the same last year. Nearly two-thirds of payments professionals surveyed said their organization had already been the target of some type of cyberattack in the last year.

A fifth said the attack hit in the form of the business email compromise, but nearly the same amount (19 percent) said it materialized as an account takeover. Data breaches came in third, cited by 15 percent of payment professionals.

“Companies need to be mindful that everyday tools from email to the Internet can pose risk to payment operations, and the criminal toolbox is expanding,” said Rick Burke, head of corporate products and services at TD Bank. “Corporate treasurers need to create layers of control for accounts and payments processing, both within their organization and in conjunction with their banking partners.”

Payments automation may reinforce a company’s defenses, TD Bank said, with more than a fifth of survey respondents saying greater control against fraud and heightened security are the top benefit to automated solutions. Speed and same-day payment capabilities were the highest-cited, chosen by 27 percent of survey respondents as the top benefit of payments automation, followed by efficiency.

Despite the opportunity for new payments technologies to enhance security, TD Bank found that treasurers and their companies lag in adopting these tools. Between 2016 and 2017, the percentage of professionals who said they are paper-free increased by just 2 percent, to 23 percent, the survey found. Optimism also dropped between 2016 an d2017 when it comes to how long professionals expect it will take for their organizations to become paper-free, with nearly half expecting it to take three or more years.